Ravina's Storybook
by CoolCat135
Summary: A book of tales, many tales, found in an abandoned library. Whoever reads the book shall go insane, pleads a note inside, but they ignored that. Now, for your entertainment, tales from the book. That accursed book. Ravina was a vulpix. ShE wAs FoRgOtTeN.
1. Switch Places With Your TeamMate?

**This is the first of a series of pokemon creepypastas, all from a strange book found in the Oblivian haunted mansion's library. Apparently, it was written by a human under the influence of a ninetale's curse. It was found behind the bookcase, behind a door that was boarded up. The ranger that found it, Kuno, I believe his name was, went crazy and was found dead, multiple burn marks on his body, his room charred. Strangely, one book, one single book, was unharmed.**

**Ravina's Storybook.**

* * *

7pm, a harsh Welsh Winter. Freakin' cold, no time to be out buying video games in the next town.

I fell back on the couch and grabbed the turquoise DS, ramming my new Explorers of Sky into the cartridge. I got it cheap from the Game shop in Bangor, and I could feel Dialga hitting the floor already! I put the volume up full and started playing, mashing on buttons excitedly before the starting animation had even ended.

Not too long, only, maybe, three hours later, I was already braving Steam Cave, and I could practically feel the atmosphere sweating off my vulpix, Ravina, and my riolu, Jango. Smashing the living daylights out of a koffing, I headed towards the staircase, tasting an easy victory on the tip of my tongue. It was sweet. Very sweet.

I grunted in frustration at the screen as I accidentally stepped in lava, hitting the left button with the edge of my thumb. Snarling psychotically, mashing the buttons so fast the poor pixel creature hardly knew what to do any more. I tried to step past Jango.

_Jango- Let's work hard on this, Ravina!_

Yes, I am working hard. Working hard to get past you. Then another message came on screen.

_Switch places with your team-mate?_

...I stopped. Let my partner step into lava? Wouldn't that be really painful? I tried sidling past him, but he walked into my way. I growled and tried to walk slant-ways, but I was cut off by a large piece of rock. I groaned. Nothing to it, I had to switch places with Jango.

_Switch places with your team-mate?_

I rolled my eyes and clicked 'yes'.

_Are you sure? This action can not be undone._

...Was that normal? My brother had played his Explorers of Time many times, and every time he tried to pass his partner on water, it only said something like 'Switch places with your partner?'. It never said 'the action cannot be undone' or whatever. Hesitating little more, I tapped yes.

I warped to the clear tile, Jango warped onto the lava.

_?_

What was this? Something happening?

_Jango appears to be in pain!_

What on earth... he can't be in pain, he's a pixellated character! Bloody hell, is this game hacked or something?

_Jango started flaming!_

Wassa Blitz'n'Blaze was goin' on 'ere? I've read loads of creepypasta, so I could feel that nothing good could come from this... I fumbled for the off switch but stopped myself as the screen cut to black. A picture of Jango popped onto the blank screen. He looked shocked. Not just the usual surprised face that appears when you find out that dusknoir's a bad guy, a truly terrified face. Pupils no bigger than pinpricks, eyes wide in astonishment, mouth open in an exploding silent scream. Slowly, the image panned down. Jango was staring at his feet. One foot in the air, one foot in the lava.

Then I came to the strangely shocking realisation.

Jango was being burnt alive.

I gasped as I saw the sickening state. Jango's left foot was melting, the flesh oozing off the bone in a disgusting fashion, the bone itself charring and the little skin left blackening and charring, the entire leg engulfed in swirling, burning flames, dancing on the skin, blacking and cracking, bleeding. All right, the game was hacked. Constipated detective. No shit Sherlock. The screen cut right back to the game, showing Ravina and half of Jango, Ravina pawing at the ground in front of her.

A riolu cry, long and loud, played as Jango slowly sunk into the lava. Ravina was drawn back, small beads of sweat flying off her fur, like she had been hit with an attack, or she just got a loss in the prize ticket drawing. My heart hammered against my chest like a nail gun as the screen faded to black. Humming a mantra of _it's only a game, it can't hurt me, _I looked at the screen again, slowly peering at the darkened screen.

Three words flashed onto the screen.

_YOU KILLED JANGO_

Those words hit me like a punch to the face. I clicked B and held it, each time the phrase repeated.

_YOU KILLED JANGO_

_YOU KILLED JANGO_

_YOU DON'T CARE_

_YOU DON'T CARE_

_HE'S GONE FOREVER_

_HE'S GONE FOREVER_

_YOU KILLED JANGO _

_YOU KILLED JANGO_

I stared at the screen, text scrolling madly across it in bright white. Almost dropping the DS, I winced as the riolu cry screamed out at me through the speakers, high and loud, blasting out like the dropping of a bomb. Scrambling for the off switch, I flicked it and the miles of 'you killed Jango' disappeared, leaving only darkness, the cry ending with an abrupt gasp.

Regaining my composure, I put down the DS and took a sip of cola. My cat pawed around my ankles, I patted her head.

"You 'right, kitten?"

She mewed faintly and looked out the window. I looked there, and there was darkness there, and nothing more.

"Silly Jessie. Silly kitten." I murmured to myself, stroking her ears, knowing that something was wrong, trying to hide my fear by baby-talking my darling tortoiseshell. She kept staring out the window, wide eyed, her black fur twitching and her green eyes fixed on some sort of invisible object outside in the field...

I shook my head. Cats do that all the time, right?

Turning on my DS, the game started automatically. But instead of a friendly clip of shaymin soaring majestically over lush green fields, surrounded by pink petals...

Darkness there, and nothing more.

Instead of the usual massive trumpet intro to the exploration theme, it started with rising fear, but about five or six frets higher, slightly off-tune. And the faint whisper of...

_You killed Jango..._

I swallowed hard on my coke and stroked Jessie's head. She carried on looking out the window. To my surprise, it then cut to the start screen. On the start screen, it had a list of my wins.

Drowsee to celebi, they were all there.

And Jango.

His mutated face as a small icon, his eye melted into a strange yellowy white goop. His eye charred down to the bones, his blood spurting over half his face, his bones burnt and blackened. I shivered in my seat, trying to blame it on the caffeine and cold. Jessie carried on staring out the window. I looked at her, and patted her gently.

I was at the crossroads. That's where I last saved. Jango wasn't behind me. Confused, I talked to Chimecho.

_Chimecho- Hi, Ravina, you called?_

Yes, I called. I want my riolu back, no matter how much he's a show off or a know it all.

_Chimecho- Sorry, I can't help you._

What the hell?

_You know why? _

I was faced with a yes or no option. I hesitantly chose 'no'.

_Because you killed Jango._

My heart nearly stopped. Hackers. I hate them. But this was creepy. I tried the wynaut swap shop, I tried the juice shop, the bank, the dojo, even the daycare, and I never use the daycare. All the same thing.

_Sorry, I can't help you. You know why? Because you killed Jango._

Then I asked electrivire. I chose yes this time.

_You know why?_

Yes.

_'Course ya do._

_But you don't care._

_You let him die._

_Jango is dead now._

Same thing, practically. The lines swirled about in my head. I ran to the right-hand side of the screen, and to the dungeons.

There was a new one.

Simply named...

_Fate._

I ran for it. Alone. No money. No items. Jessie was still staring into the darkness, but I didn't bother petting her this time. I just ran through the long corridor, just a long corridor of rock walls. I reached the stairs.

And continued.

The screen was dark. Just a lonely vulpix, walking on thin air. After about twenty steps and one violent seed, just in case, the background slowly faded into view.

I was walking on a bed of fire. I proceeded as far as the dungeon went. There was a blackout.

And a riolu face faded onto screen.

Teeth drawn back into a gnarling smile, baked gums glaring. Ears missing, bones, blood and tissue showing. One eye popped like a balloon, empty, reddened socket full of a horrible, congealing yellowish pus. Deformed teeth, like millions of needles, slowly parting to utter a horrible cry.

The riolu cry rang in my ears, stinging and forcing into my brain like a syringe. It screamed like hell, I covered my ears, but my cat still remained rigid, staring at the window. Fiddling with the controls, I turned the volume off. But the cry was now silent... I heard it say something.

_Switch places with your team-mate?_

I growled and switched the DS off, throwing it at a wall and furiously swallowing my coke. I shook my head and continued the mantra of _it's just a pixel character, just a game, a horrible, disgusting hacked game..._

I looked out the window just as something flashed past it.

Jessie hissed and spat, I stood up slowly, fear again rising in my caffeine-stained heart. I pressed against the sill, staring out the glass.

Thunder struck the field and illuminated the scene

I gasped as my heart leapt into my throat. Somebody was standing in the rolling grey mist A darkened figure amongst the nightlike clouds of smog that were flowing through fields of darkened Welsh grass. Rubbing my eyes, I blinked.

Jango's face pressed to the glass.

_YOU KILLED JANGO!_

_YOU KILLED JANGO!_

_YOU KILLED JANGO!_

_YOU KILLED JANGO!_

The repeated chant burrowed into my head and rung in my ears so hard it made me want to die. Jango's sickened stare, his disfigurement, I killed Jango. On the game. ON THE GAME! If my friends leapt out, screaming 'surprise!' and said it was just an illusion, I might have been a little comforted.

But the slowly rising heat said otherwise.

The red and blue creature that was once what might have been a riolu pressed a disfigured paw to the window. I slowly raised my hand. I couldn't be doing this, I thought. It's only a bad dream, I thought, I'll wake up slapping myself silly and screaming 'I should have listened!'.

I touched the window.

The heat was blistering! My hand recoiled back, I hissed and clutched it, cursing myself. I glared up at Jango, who was smiling a deformed smile, baring razor-sharp teeth and staring back at me with a crazed-looking yellow and piercing green eye, and a bloody crimson hole filled with pus.

He slowly moved his lips to say...

_Switch places with your team-mate?_

I screamed and fell backwards, furiously scrabbling to back myself against the sofa. But the sofa wasn't there. Just darkness. Darkness and nothing more. The room was shrouded in a veil of beckoning darkness, an empty, all-filling blackness, cold as ice to see but hot as hell...

To speak of it, it was as hot as hell!

I frantically leapt back and forth as my feet scorched, I leapt from one foot to the other, but my blood felt like it was turning to hot sauce, or bees. Stinging and burning, buzzing around furiously, it felt more like bloody psychopathic wasps! Ever seen Zombies VS Bees? That. That in my blood. It was excruciating.

The darkness twisted and contorted like a swirling portal of enveloping nightmares, grey and black, like swirling coal into coffee. It pulled me in, pushed me out, rocked me about and held me still as a statue. My breath froze to ice as a voice whispered tauntingly in my ear, incomprehensible. I so wanted to swat that voice, to turn around and wave my arms frantically like a bitch-fight, but nothing happened. I was swatting air.

Until...

It rang in my ears.

The lights flashed bright for mere milliseconds.

The noise screamed into my head. My feet felt like they were on fire. I felt like I was engulfed in flames, melting into the ground as the noise hit me like a punch in the guts.

...

_SWITCH PLACES WITH YOUR TEAM-MATE?_


	2. Food For Thought

The giant oak doors creaked as I entered her house, feeling like a very small animal entering a larger animal's den. Her house was slightly messy. It was cold and empty, and much quieter than I had expected for her, as she was so rough, no matter how unintentional it may have been. Old umbrellas in brass stands, cat ornaments on the mantle-piece, it was strangely old-fashioned. It was dimly lit by numerous fizzling candles, and upon entering the dining room, after many long corridors, a large chandelier. The wallpaper was a dark red colour, with golden skirting and dark mahogany floorboards.

"Follow me." she called out. I could barely hear her voice, she was already in the kitchen. I stepped into the room, through the archway and up to a large, stylish table with an even bigger golden chandelier overhead. She whisked away a dark chair, curled back with a soft velvet cushion sitting on it. I slid down into the velvet, fiddling with the silk napkins and china rings.

"Now you sit right there..." she smiled, baring her sharp teeth. No matter how well she meant, she couldn't help looking intimidating with her sharp fangs and scruffy appearance.

"And I'll go get dinner started."

I stared, stunned, at the great elegance of the room, as I heard her leave through the kitchen door. Catching from the corner of my eye, I saw her tying the strings to an old apron with pink trim.

"You'll like it," she called out to me, as I heard hot water running. "The meat is very fresh."

Smirking, I looked towards the old grandfather clock. The golden pendulum swished rhythmically, the old hands clicking along at a steady pace. The entire house looked like soft dark reds, mahogany tables and woodwork, and golden trimming, giving it a warm, but alien feeling.

"First course up!" she yelled out, scrambling into the room with a covered dish on a tray. Capturing a glimpse of my reflection in the silver cover, and the smell of delicious meat wafting through the silver dish, I felt my mouth fall open and I wiped a little drool off my chin with my sleeve.

"Chicken soup!" she declared, whisking the cover off the platter, revealing the creamy-looking soup, with a few pieces of baguette lining the dish. Placing the heated dish directly under my nose, she smiled toothily and ran back into the kitchen. Pulling the elegantly decorative soup spoon out of the napkin, I dabbed the bread lightly into the soup.

The starter was divine, the dark red chicken soup was smooth and very hot, the bread was crisp and firm. Running back in, chuffed to bits, she placed numerous silver platters over the table, wiping her hands on the apron with a wide, pointed smile.

"Wow." I exclaimed, breathless. "Marie, you really did your best!"

Her face slowly contorted into a small frown. "...Marie-Andrea."

I swallowed. "Sorry, I mean, I-"

"Mum always called me Marie." she murmured, a slight smile creeping across her pale face, but her eyes full of sadness and sorrow. "But... you look so much like her..."

I didn't know what to say. "Um.. thanks?" I managed to muster as I looked across the various plates and platters. "How do you do it, all by yourself?"

She let out a strange sigh. Strangled, almost. "I take lots of preparations and precautions, to make sure nothing, nothing at all, can go wrong," she smiled toothily. "And the meat I use is always very fresh."

I felt a strange feeling stir inside of me, but let it simmer as she uncovered a delicious-looking pork and beef platter, plump and juicy, fresh and hot. I took the knife and fork as she filled a tall glass with a beautiful, dark red wine. Similar to the walls in colour, sipping it, sweet and smooth, it soothed my mind and made my body calm.

The pork and beef were both exquisite, the beef, somehow tasted milky, and when I ate the pork, something moved in my mind, like a psychic pokemon's attack. I let it slide.

Next came the duck platter, followed by the fish dish. I couldn't eat all of it, but Marie-Andrea was smiling so widely, baring all of her teeth, but she seemed so happy.

_So psychotically happy..._

The fish... it made me feel an urge to grow, to be more beautiful, to be faster, stronger, better. Filling me with determination, like a magikarp to evolution. Duck- it tasted lovely. It had a strong, spicy taste, the chopped leek adorning the rims of the platter, that too had such a wonderful taste. Marie was such a good cook, she was tall and slim, but her fingers were skilled and nimble, stuffing and preparing the meat so professionally that I was simply amazed.

"Oh, Marie. Thank you!" I smiled, leaning back in my chair. "I couldn't eat another bite."

She looked... almost sad. "Oh... but what about... dessert?"

I always had a sweet tooth. Dessert sounded lovely, but I was stuffed. "Okay, just some."

She placed a china bowl on the table before me. Ice cream, with a cherry on top.

I took a spoonful of ice cream and jammed it into my mouth. Cool on my tongue, it was sweet, it was cold, it was creamy and smooth and ever so dreamy...

_And it had eyes..._

I shrieked and dropped the spoon. Marie-Andrea looked upset. Stunned. Picking up the spoon, ever so slowly, she fixed her eyes onto mine, a cold anger visible in the icy irises. Creeping my eyes away from her freezing, paralysing gaze, my gaze fell onto the cherry. I noticed it, immediately feeling a scream stuck in my throat. The beat-up look, the stubby legs, the slight cut under the eye...

_It was the smaller half of my cherubi, Cherryade._

Rising out of my chair, I edged away from Marie. Now grinning like a psychopath, she crept towards me, pulling one of the meat-knives out of the beef. Suddenly breaking into a sprint, I ran towards the door, but she pulled me back by the hair, forcing a scream out my mouth. She turned me around, so I was met with her icy, cold, hateful glare, and her psychopathic, fanged grin.

"You look so much like mother." she whispered in my ear, sending a jarr down my spine. I whimpered.

"What are you, Marie?" I asked her, my voice in a barely audible whisper.

"I'm a chef." she said, her eyes half-lidded now, her smile sneaking back into a small smirk. "And you, you are nothing to me."

The words made me fall completely quiet, completely weak.

"Nothing at all. Nothing but fresh meat."

Noticing the knife creeping closer to my stomach. I smacked her hand away, grunting, my heart pounding. Why Cherryade? Poor thing. I felt the wine trying to make an encore through the seat of my pants as I fled towards the kitchen. Plucking up my strength, I clambered out the window and made a break for the pokemon centre.

When I entered, all was completely quiet. All but a noise in the back room. A small noise. Nothing but that. Only the smallest whisper of a noise. Quiet as the sound of rattatta having a really quiet choir-practice, quiet as a game of near-mute chess, a noise barely heard. Only a very light noise, a small noise.

_Crunching._

I couldn't bear to look. But I needed answers. I needed to find out where the rest of Cherryade was. Cherryade. And maybe others. I wanted to find out if there were any other pokemon that were gone. I couldn't face not knowing, staying completely oblivious to the deaths of my beautiful, beautiful pokemon.

I took the receiver of the phone for a weapon, nothing else was in reach, taking it by the wire for a swinging weapon, like a flail mace, spinning it by the curled wire, readying a powerful blast.

But I dropped it as soon as I saw what had happened.

Seven of my favourite pokemon. Dead. All dead.

There was my answer. The other half of my dear Cherryade, bled out, lying limp and lifeless. He looked like he was drained completely dry, no blood was pooled around. Ah, there was the wine, making an entrance again.

Blissblaze, my combusken. Plucked clean, his left arm torn off, his chest torn open, flesh missing. His mouth open in a scream. One eye fixed on me, with a look that urged the words '_help me'._

Springbox, my miltank, shiny, at that, her chest skinned clean, her ribs picked away, no meat on her upper half at all. Her light blue skin, pale and cold to the touch as I stroked my hand along her soft cheek.

Pointblanc, lying still in his own blood. The aging grumpig was no match for the speed of whatever killed him, the missing orbs from his body suggesting that he had still put up a fight. Pointblank was a grumpig that never gave up. Thinking of that, I missed him even more.

Feeble. Lived up to his name. As a feebas, gutted and sliced apart, only his head and tail remaining, he didn't stand a chance against the offender. I had a pretty sure idea who that was.

Walter looked in terrible shape. The poor vanillish's head had a clean circle cut out of his head. Like it had been cut out with an ice-cream scoop. The ice crystals on his body were a dull grey, and the mist from his body was getting thinner and thinner.

_Then I was terrified._

My favourite pokemon, my treasured farfetch'd, Legolas. He looked like he was frozen in motion, apart from both of his wings torn off, his eyes were still open, full of a furious element, but slowly dimming. I ran up to him and cradled his body in my arms, crying softly, staining my shirt with his blood. He was only a farfetch'd, they weren't the strongest around, but he was skilled, and could lug his macho brace around without hesitation, handling the item without difficulty.

_Who could do such a thing?_

My heart was in tatters. They were my favourite pokemon, I couldn't have them all in one team, but I trained them all equally. I loved them, and they kind of loved me back. But someone took that all away. My mind was frosting over with anger, fear, sadness, so many emotions driving my mind over the edge with a flurry of different essences.

Then the crunching noise came back. It sounded like a wild animal feasting off prey.

In a way, it was.

Still holding Legolas, I turned to scowl at Marie-Andrea, my heart boiling in all the numerous smashed pieces. Hurling the body at her, she edged sideways, dodging it, the body falling, limp, to the cold floor.

Then I noticed what, no, _who, _she was eating.

Nurse Joy. Her arms were twisted and contorted into all the horrible shapes, her mouth open in a final gasp. Her neck was at an unnatural angle, blood trickling onto Marie-Andrea's hands. Baring her fangs once more, showing flesh and blood between each sharp tooth. I tried to move, to run, to attack, but my feet were glued to the spot. Paralysed by fear, my eyes fixed on Marie-Andrea and her... prey.

Teeth sinking into the bloody, torn neck of the nurse, Marie took a chunk out. The same horrific crunching noise filled the silent air. I tried to back away, to reach the phone, to throw it or pretend it was real or distract this psychopath in any way that would buy me time to run, or at least get my legs in gear somehow.

Marie dropped the broken, torn body to the floor. It fell with a thud.

"It's true what they say, you know."

She crept closer, drawing the knife up to my chest. I felt my breaths grow shallow and my eyes grow watery. All I could think of was Legolas and the others, how such a monster could do such a thing, what type of heartless person would do that. Bile rose in my throat, thinking of how I had eaten the things I loved so much. But... a piece of them was inside of me. And soon, I felt I would be with them.

A scream escaped my lips once more as Marie's sharp teeth tore a chunk of flesh from my shoulder. A burning, intense pain, scratching at my flesh, drawing blood. I fell to my knees, weakened, my will to live fading as she retracted her fangs.

"Tastes just like chicken."


	3. I Am Everyone You Care About

**This chapter was found in the storybook in the form of what looked like a diary. The edges seemed like the had been torn and dried, as if something had bitten and salivated on it. Scraps of data seemed to have been stuck in in the end, and the writing was barely recognizable, as if what wrote it couldn't hold the pen properly. It also included various expletives, so read at risk of being terribly offended.**

* * *

"...And you'll hear his footsteps coming down the alley... shlup shlup shlup..."

His ghostly voice echoed in the cold winter air coming through the nothingness as we walked down the streets at midnight. My best friend grasped me by the shoulders, roaring. Jumping, shocked, I recoiled, cursing various expletives as shocks coursed my spine.

"Shit!"

He found this incredibly funny. Darkness, silence, a faint, eerie voice telling the entire story of the monster in this very forest, the creature that went shlup, shlup, shlup. Only one psychopath would have the nerve to do something like that to me under such circumstances.

"For the love of..." I mumbled. "Stop it, Max. You're wreaking havoc on my nerves..."

Max let out a roaring laugh as I pulled the collar up on my coat. We were on our way to a party, already a good fifteen minutes late, and treading through dead leaves and cracked cobblestones as we took the shortcut through Double Forest.

"You're not afraid of it, are ya?" Max teased. "Big Bad Bill, afraid of a pokemon in Double Forest?"

"No." I grunted. That ended it.

There was silence. Dark skies, choked in black clouds, swept over the forest as Max carelessly kicked a bush, which I could have sworn was a tangela or a swadloon, and I eyed the tall, crooked trees with their dark green leaves and gnarled branches, like weathered old man hands...

_Shlup shlup shlup._

I screamed, Max giggled. "What the hell was that?" I managed to cry.

"Only me, clearing my throat." Max said, fighting off a smirk. I shot him a poisonous glare and carried on walking. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Dead leaves and wet leaves, twigs and sticks...

But no pokemon...

Usually a forest like this is a haven for bug types. Dark, moist, and not many humans go there. Perfect for foongus and amoongus, shroomish and breloom, but there were no living creatures apparent there. Nobody spoke of them, at least. If you asked, they'd say no, never saw a pokemon there, not a pokemon in that forest.

Certainly not one that goes shlup shlup shlup.

Stranger still, even when no pokemon were there, everyone that came out in either Diamond Town or Amethyst City always swore that they'd heard noises, and their friend would also have heard them, little footsteps, sometimes little cries, even, rarely, crunching noises from far off in the trees.

But no shlup shlup shlup.

And nobody ever went alone. Always in twos or threes or groups. Even those who scoffed and said it wasn't true, those who laughed at the theory of a creature that went shlup shlup shlup, had no form, but could assume the form of any creature, even those went in groups for fear of that strange, unknown creature. Even in broad daylight, when anybody could roam the streets of anywhere with no fear, not even Officer Jennies would enter there alone.

"Speak up." Max said, completely out of nowhere, shocking me.

"What? You say something?"

"No, I thought you said something."

"I didn't say anything."  
"So what was that?"

"What was what?"

He paused there, his finger in my face as we watched the silence, seeking out the noise he heard. Crack. Rustle. Chirrup.

"That!"

Shivering, I knocked it off. "Probably just a buneary or something."

"Yeah."

He looked at me, and the look on his face was more shaking than the noise, or the rumours, or the shlup shlup shlup. Obviously rattled, his eyes darted suspiciously from the bushes and trees to my face where they stayed there, glancing into my eyes like murky moat water. But duller. His eyes weren't the joker's I remembered, they were hollow black irises. Swallowing and nodding, we carried on walking, ignoring the noise.

Just a buneary.

Just.

A.

Buneary.

They say that if you pick a pokemon's bones clean after you kill it or eat it, then take it back to where you found it, the pokemon would be reborn, with no recollection of being killed. There were many little piles of bones littering the sidepaths in the forest. Why hadn't they been reborn? Sure, pokemon eat pokemon. A glameow will eat a feebas. A pidgeot will eat a caterpie. Occasionally, a sableye will eat a gigalith. But they would always be sure to pick the bones clean and take them back to where they came from.

Maybe they weren't from there.

Maybe they weren't pokemon bones at all.

Maybe...

Maybe they were-

My own phone rang with a shrill shriek of the first few bars of Dio's We Rock blasted out, tearing the silence like a knife through... I didn't want to think. Max jumped, pulling his scarf up, shivering. It was strange seeing him like this. It was like it wasn't him. Like the theory of the thing that went shlup shlup shlup had broken into him and turned him into a hollow shell.

"Hello?" I said into my crappy little phone. Sorry, I had to say it, it is a crappy little phone.

"Billyboy!" shouted a loud voice on the other end. Music was in the background, it was clearly A Really Cool Dance Song, Bowling For Soup, it was so loud that the person was yelling into the receiver to hear himself speak. "Where are you? The party's in full swing and you haven't even set foot in Amethyst City yet! What's wrong, stuck on the loo?"

"Nah," I said. "Me and Max got lost in Double Forest."

There was a long, awkward period of silence following a small gasp that came from the other end. Whoever was calling seemed stunned, dumbstruck.

Afraid.

After the silence came a small voice. "Bill... I'm Max. This is Max."

Another silence. Quaking, I whispered into the receiver;

"Then who's this guy next to me?"

"I don't know..." Max mumbled, his voice an octave higher, trembling. "But it's not Max."

_Bzzt. Crackle crackle._

"W-wait, Max, what-"

"Bill? You're breaking up!"

_Buzz, bzzt. Crackle crackle._

"Max, Max, what's going on?"

_Bzz, bzzt, buzz, Crackle._

"Bill, oh my god, Bill, BILL!"

With a final splutter, the phone went dead. Gulping down a lump in my throat the size of an ultra ball, I took a step forwards. 'Max' wasn't here. It wasn't here. Imposter. Faker. Whatever it was, whatever it was that had replaced my friend was here.

But if that wasn't my friend, then...

Oh shit.

Oh shit and shuppet.

I was alone, all alone, in Double Forest. At night.

"Who are you?" I called out. "Who the fuck are you and why are you following me?"

Rustle, rustle.

Just a buneary, I assured myself. Tauros crap. It was something much bigger than a buneary. Much bigger and much scarier. But something in the back of my head wanted to reassure me that it was just a harmless, fluffy little buneary, and was psychotically forcing me to block out my thoughts of whatever the hell dwelled in Double Forest.

_Shlup._

I froze. That noise.

_Shlup, shlup._

Th-that noise... what...

_Shlup, shlup, shlup._

What- what are you? Who? What are you doing? Help! Anybody-

…

_You see the small purple blob. It's not at all threatening. Its dopey face and tiny size make it look simple and, dare you think, adorable. You kneel down to touch it. But then it grows. It grows and grows. A scream throttles into your throat, building up like water in a dam. It is now three times your size, and anything but dopey. Opening its enormous mouth, revealing rows upon rows of razor sharp carnivorous teeth, you stare into its gaping, sickly, bloody maw. The dam bursts, you scream as loud as you can, tearing through most of your vocal chords in forced terror._

_But miles around, even if your best friend was calling the police, your partner was crying to an Officer Jenny, your parents hugging each other in the hope that you're allright, nobody will hear you now, and nobody ever will._

Ditto, Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Pokedex description:

_It has the ability to reconstitute its entire cellular structure to transform into whatever it sees._


	4. Gelert

**The following chapter was found in the storybook, sewn in messily with shaking hands. The paper seemed bloodied and dried, and the writing was jumping and electric. The chapter is named after a Welsh legend of betrayal, and the story uses elements of fear, rage, betrayal, loss and breaking out, insanity taking grip.**

* * *

Every time an entei roars, a volcano erupts.

Every time a volcano erupts, a baby entei is born.

So, seeing as entei tends to roar one hell of a lot...

What happens to all the baby entei?

…

I turned my face away as Suicune let the knife drop with a sharp thud, slicing the head clean off the baby entei's body, silencing its cries and squeals. Letting the blood stop spraying, she threw the lifeless body onto the pile. Every day that pile grew a little, so did the pile next to it. A pile of decapitated heads. The blood was now a hardened substance, congealed into a horrible, dry matter that I had to walk around to reach the bucket, thus making me need the bucket even more.

"Hey, Raikou, heads up!"

I looked up, just to have a gory head thrown at my face. Catching it, screaming, I fell backwards. Vomiting into the bucket, I threw the head onto the pile. Landing face-up, it still stared at me, horrible eye to eye. Eyes fixed on the gruesome scene, I stared at the head, mouth open with bloody tongue and teeth. I shuddered as the tongue slithered off the jaw. Laughing, Suicune patted me on the back and went to the other room to clean her meat cleaver.

Shuddering, I followed her. I wanted to get the blood off me as soon as possible. Although I knew that if she wasn't doing this, there would be millions of entei over-running every region, turning it into a burning, cramped hell hole, I also knew that if Entei found our little 'slaughterhouse' then he'd be devastated. Besides, killing these baby entei felt so wrong in so many ways... trapped between a rock and a hard place, if I went with my sister, we'd be baby-murdering bastards, but if I went with my brother, we'd be knee-deep in babies, all angry and roaring.

And hungry.

Washing my hands in the sink, I paused to splash my face with cold water, trying my best to forget the deadly deeds Suicune had been performing. But no matter how I tried, I couldn't wipe my mind clean from the last baby entei.

His eyes were so full of life, he was a healthy young lad, so quick and slick.

And he was silenced so early.

I was snapped out of it yet again from what seemed like a wet fish slapping me in the back of the head. Unfortunately, it was the tongue from a dead entei baby, making me squeal and scream and flail like nobody's business. Suicune facepawed.

"What are you, a meganium?" she growled.

I shrugged, waving my paws disgustedly. "Meganium can be tough."

"Yeah, says the pansy-saur."

She laughed mockingly at me and wiped the meat cleaver off with a rag. Turning quickly, she threw the rag at my head, making me duck and growl.

"Raikou, you idiot." she sighed. "Just don't let Entei get in. If he found out..."

Yelping and roaring from outside told us that a new baby had fell at the door. Good old Latios. Latias didn't agree with what he was doing, sending these little lambs to the slaughter, but of course she wouldn't. Nobody in their right mind would. I wasn't even sure if Latios and I thought it was right. Suicune definitely did, so she skipped to the front door, her cape billowing like storm clouds, as she greeted Latios with a bloodstained smile. He attempted to smile back, but fled as soon as she offered him to come in for a bite to eat, taking wing and speeding away.

"It's his loss," she said, shrugging. "Anyway, here's the little bastard."

Butterfree fluttered in my stomach as she showed me the new baby. So cute! It had blue eyes, and shiny, how precious! I picked him up, snatching him out of Suicune's hands.

"Hey!" she yelled. "I was eating that!"

But I wasn't listening, I was cooing over the baby entei. Beautiful baby blue eyes, silky soft fur, the cutest set of big, fluffy paws you'd ever see, and such an adorable mewling noise that I almost melted, my heart fluttering and my body falling limp.

"Raikou..." I heard Suicune say, scolding me. "Don't get too attached. Remember, chop chop."

"Just this once, please?" I pleaded, my heart feeling as if it would burst. "He's so darling..."

Suicune gave a disgusted snarl. "Don't tell me you're really against this? Look, I know you're a complete coward and all, but I won't let you get in my way. So sit still and shut the hell up. Don't you dare try and mess with fate, no matter how cute it is."

I felt my heart drop like a lead balloon as suicune grabbed the baby entei harshly and dragged it to the table, throwing it down like a broken toy. Raising the heavy knife, she held it above her head with one paw while holding the squirming, crying pup down with the other, her claws spread like an eagle's talons. I bit my nails. How could I go through with this?

The poor little puppy whimpered. Its noise whisked me away from reality and reason, it touched my soul in a way that you only get from meditating for three years while listening to Adagio For Strings constantly; it made tears well in my eyes, it made my stomach churn and my being had never felt so particularly empty. Hollow. Numb.

Before Suicune had swung the knife down with a dreadful thud, I roared as loud as I could. Suicune yelped and threw the knife, it flew through the air and hit one of the lifeless bodies with a dry thump, deadly and sharp like a butcher chopping smoked ham. Anger boiled up inside my guts and made my insides burn with rage and I flicked out my long claws in a storm of fury. Suicune picked herself up and stared at me, her eyes like a flurry of ice; cold and harsh, unforgiving.

"What did you do that for?" she hissed, her voice like grinding metal. "You bastard! I'll finish him off with my bare claws then!"

"No!" I roared, dreading the thought of her tearing the darling entei apart with her claws. Dashing at her like a bolt of lightning, I struck her to the floor. She screamed, her claws bloody. My eyes darted from her to the entei.

It was lying in three pieces. Suicune's claws were really dug deep, she had scratched its belly open and it was frozen, a look of perpetual fear and confusion in its big blue eyes, all four paws stuck in the air, its mouth with the one baby tooth, a bleeding maw open in a gaping 'why?'. Rage like I'd never felt before ignited in the pit of my stomach. When you see something that touched your soul like that destroyed before your very eyes, something lets go inside your mind. Snaps, even. The pain, the pain of losing such a beautiful thing, it can be what tells you;

You're alive.

"You baby-murdering hellhound!" I barked. Suicune flinched. Yes. I was alive, and she had never saw it coming. Raikou, the coward, the softie, the little mommy's boy who would never do anything out of place and cried at the end of films. But not any more. He was gone. I was the legend of thunder, and damn me to hell if the legend of pretty auroras will treat me like a phone charger!

Grabbing her knife from the dry body, I licked my lips. Her every muscle tensed, her eyes wide with shock and confusion. Boy, she was not expecting this, not in a million years. Her mind was desperately trying to grip the idea of this new Raikou. No longer a month-old pup who never really grew up, I was everything she tried to be, but everything she feared.

"How could you do this?!" I roared, raising to my hind legs and slashing her arm. She choked out what tried to be a command, but fell to the ground as a dying, strangled whisper. "They were just pups! So young! Who cares if entei overpopulate the earth?! I don't care! Send them to a different dimension! Do some sort of shit most legendary pokemon know how to do! Whatever, there's obviously a more legit solution than lopping their heads off!"

"Raikou... please... just stop it, okay?" she managed to murmur through the pain. I could see pain like nothing before in her eyes. Tears of pain and shock streaming down her cheeks, her eyes clenched tight, her body cowering weakly in the corner. But it was too late for her. "I'll... I'll find a way... nobody will ever know... we can live a new life... Entei will never have to know..."

I snarled. "You killed thousands of innocent, defenceless puppies. You killed them with glee. You enjoyed it! You evil sadistic rat!"

"It's already happened, kid." she said, gasping for breath. "There's nothing you can do."

"Yeah. Yeah. And I guess there's nothing you can do about this."

I slashed her arm, the flesh falling away like a rag and the blood spraying violently. She opened her mouth and tried to force a scream out, but all that she managed was a throttled cry as blood dribbled down her chin like messy eating.

"Or this!"

I stabbed downwards sharply, hacking and leaving deep gashes in her blue fur. Her paw raised in a plea for mercy, I slashed the wrist on the lifeline. Blood sprayed messily as her entire body jerked forwards violently. Wailing now, her sounds of fear and regret filled the hideout as she slowly bled to death, in agonising pain, writhing on the floor like a dying fish.

"Hey, Suicune." I grinned, showing a new set of red and viciously pointed fangs.

"Huh?" she bubbled as she looked up weakly, her eyes red, her throat filling with blood.

"Heads up!"

I drove the weapon deeply into her forehead, swinging my arm so hard that my shoulder ached as if the joint was going to pop out of the socket. With one last gurgle, Suicune's mouth dripped, bloody and limp, and she fell backwards like a puppet with broken strings. Satisfied, I let my body relax as I turned to the ceiling and roared.

With a swift yank, I pulled the knife out of Suicune's head. It left a gaping wound, the knife bloody and covered in gunk. Wiping it on my chest, I smiled at myself in the reflection on the shining blade like moonlight in an iced lake. The reflection of myself on the glinting metal, I was staring at a part of myself that had been trying to talk to me for years, a broken spirit. Rage.

"Hey, what's going on he-"

Entei. He stepped into the room in all of his glory, his fur rippling as he stopped dead in his tracks. The last things he saw before his lights went out forever were terrifying to him. A room he'd never seen before, hiding in an underground cave he thought he'd blocked up years ago. A pile of his young, dead in a heap, lying in a pool of congealing blood and pus, dry and rotting. Blood lining the walls, splatters of red on the rocky cavern. Suicune lying, limp, lifeless, in a bloody heap, her wrists and arms hacked and slashed, a deep crack in her skull with blood dripping and pooling around it.

Then me, Raikou, his best friend, flying at him with a glittering knife, my eyes glinting maniacally and my mouth open in a psychotic beam as he desperately tried to make sense of the scene, the scene as if it were from a dreadfully confusing horror film.

You know, Suicune was right, Entei never had to know.


	5. Welcome To The Dusk Factory

**This chapter, found in the Fiore Region in Fall City, was printed in the old press center. The strange thing; there was nobody at the press, nobody operating it. The printer just started printing. The typist who was working overtime, sitting a few rooms away, was found dead the following morning. There were no markings on his body; but his entire internal organ system had been scrambled into porridge.**

**Now, the hidden terror of the Fiore Region,  
The Dusk Factory.**

* * *

I felt the breath leave my body. The machines drained the last of my energy. Electricity crackled in the cables, charged the boxes that powered terrible motors. Every joint ached and every bone felt on the verge of snapping. My blood felt dry and hot. I could see my reflection on the glass; my face was pale, my mouth was cracked and foaming, and my eyes were turning red. The edges of my vision turned blurred. I knew.

I was going to die.

* * *

Have you played Pokemon Ranger? The first one? It's pretty limited compared to the others, you can really see the development from there to the latest. But despite all this, it is a decent game. It's quite fun, it's nice going back to the basics.

In Fall City, there's an old abandoned factory named the Dusk Factory. It's where the Go-Rock Squad used to manufacture their capture stylers. Now it's apparently haunted, but it's only the ghost types there.

Here's the annoying problem. The gastly there abduct your pokemon if you stay still near them too long. It's a bother, but it's not enough to make you quit the game.

In the storyline, you have to save two pikachu that are trapped in steel cages. The Go-Rock Squad are using the pikachu to power a generator. After you free them, the power goes out in that room and you can go on to the next room.

It makes you wonder what type of people the Go-Rock Squad really are. Treating pikachu like this is pretty harsh, huh?

But at least you don't see what happens five years later.

* * *

Five years after your adventures, the Dusk Factory is beginning to get back into work again. It produces heavy machinery, and still only runs at night. It is unknown what they produce, it is only known that it uses very heavy machinery.

Few are seen entering, but nobody is seen leaving. There is little outside knowledge of it, but the boss goes out every month to answer public questions. He is a tall man in a brown cloak who does not show his face. It is all very suspicious, but this is known if him-

He has a long blonde moustache.

This man, despite apparently weak, is very sharp. He answers the trickiest of questions superbly. He is never late. He is almost too clever. But the simple people of Fall City would not suspect him. He is an expert at getting on the good side of all; the foolish, the wise, the strong, the weak. You would think he was psychic.

* * *

I was a new reporter for Fall City Times. My first assignment? Study the strange goings-on in the Dusk Factory. It had been previously reported that something wasn't right there. The boss hadn't shown up for the latest conference. He had sent one of the lower executives to deal with it; a short, wiry man in the same cloak with a slim blonde moustache. He didn't show up for the next, or the next. He did not appear for almost a year.

There were also reports of missing people. For instance, the reporter that reported the previous case. He had entered the building and not returned for some while. When he did return, it was in a casket. It was told that he had fallen near some heavy machinery and had been killed. The company were very sorry.

Another case was a gang of vandals that had gone near the factory. This case was very little known. A bunch of kids were spraypainting, breaking the fences, kicking the signs. The old lady by the pier claimed that she had heard yelling that night. She dismissed it because she thought it was only the kids messing around. The scratch marks on the sign, the obvious marks of struggle in the yard, the fact none of the boys were ever seen again? Another story.

* * *

I entered the factory. The code had been changed from 60 to something much more complicated, but I hadn't gone through the main gate. I had gotten a trainer friend with a fearow to lift me over. The yard was devoid of life. Usually there were voltorb, a meowth or two, but there were no pokemon. Just empty oil cans and sacks of coal.

Broke in through the front door. It had been unlocked.

The factory was unnerving. All the machinery was running, but the lights were a pale, flickering glow in the dust. The only thing I could hear over the ominous, echoing clank and whirr, was the music. It was quiet, but I heard the music. From every appliance, even my walkie-talkie, that music. A slow, echoey chant. I shook myself. No time for petty fear. Time to work this out. I took my hidden camera and my notepad and proceeded through the doors.

Much of the place had changed since the heroic ranger five years back. Three years ago, there had been a major explosion caused by hostile voltorb and the Dusk Factory had been rebuilt when the new owner walked in. It was a deeper complex of dark, dank passages. No pokemon. No life.

I could hear heavy machinery behind me, but I heard voices in front. Murmuring through the pipes. People. I eased forwards. It was cold and clammy. I knew I should have turned back, but my curiosity had gotten the better of me.

I opened the door.

What I saw disgusted me.

Thousands of glass cages. At first, I thought they were cages of pokemon. Shaved infernape. Furless simisear. Slakoth with a skin disease. Needles stuck in them. Fluid flowing out. Covered in scars and cuts. Shallow as it seems, if it they were pokemon, it'd be a little more bearable. But they weren't. Their screams, their expressions, the look of pain on their faces, these were humans.

The door clashed open behind me.

And I was filled with an impending sense of dread.

* * *

Alakazam has an IQ of 5000. The smartest human is a good 250. Alakazam is at least twenty times cleverer than any human. They would easily overthrow humans. So why haven't they? Because humans have resources, are easy to find, they have no immediate defence system that overpowers pokemon.

A human could not survive horn attack; their internal organs be reduced to mush. Ice beam would freeze them to death. Sky drop and seismic toss? Air pressure, oxygen and landing. Pokemon have been slaves to humans, yet are more powerful. Pokemon are data. Humans are flesh. Data is corrupted. Flesh is destroyed. Pokemon can be healed by a machine. Humans, if they are hit by blast burn, hyper fang, or even just slash in the right place, are defeated, and stay that way.

Forever.

Now, as most pokemon outsmart and overpower humans in pretty much all ways, they have no problem capturing them. Teleporting. Flying. Surfing. Digging. There is no place a pokemon cannot get you. And we already trust them too much. Remember Tory from the 7th movie, when he is trapped in a pokemon stampede? Did they swerve to avoid him? No. They just ran. They could have killed him. He had a reason to be afraid of pokemon. Maybe he knew.

But humans have resources; and humans feel pain. The human body is very versatile. It can reconstruct itself after serious injury. But they still feel pain. Pain creates adrenaline. We can become afraid or angry. We run. We fight. Energy. Kinetic energy.

What if pokemon had the technology?

Kidnap us? Capture us?

Convert our pain into energy?

Alakazam. Known for its intelligence. Its spoons. Its moustache.

Psychic type. Mind reading, mind control, manipulation.

Master of disguise?

* * *

I felt the pokemon lift me into the air. My microphone. If I could record my last words and get them back to base...

I couldn't.

My mic was thrown across the room. It landed with a crash and shattered. Walkie-talkie gripped in numb fingers, I tried to access the police line, but all I got was that music, that music from the Dusk Factory, before it was ripped from my hands.

Overpowered. Arms broken. Thrown into a glass cell.

Needles. Pins. Shoved into my skin, into my veins. I screamed. Alakazam looked at me. Accusing eyes. Suffering. Hot irons into my wrists and ankles, into the point where it really hurt, it seared, scalded, skin blistering. I fell, I pleaded, I begged. Thrown backwards like a ragdoll. I could see the energy, the adrenaline in my veins. Powering their machines.

When the pliers came out, I wailed so hard I almost laughed hysterically. Sweat drenched my clothes. The pliers went under my fingernails. Such a sense of dread, of fear, of anger, I shook frantically and had to be held by the psychic beams. I watched kadabra's arm go back and let out a panicked cry of hopelessness. The fist came down.

My fingernail came off with a sickening rip.

Blood dripped onto the floor and I screamed. This was meant to heal. The tender skin would heal. But it would be vulnerable.

Alakazam ordered for it to be done again. I pleaded otherwise, screamed and begged for mercy. But it was done. Nine more times. Pliers under the nail, digging into the soft flesh, tearing through, the nail plucked away viciously. Alakazam turned to two abra by the entrance.

They nodded and left.

Alakazam turned back to me.

I could tell that he was smiling.

_You wonder why you're here._

It wasn't a question; a statement. Alakazam is incredibly clever. It speaks telepathically. It reads your thoughts.

_Your energy, your adrenaline, powers us. Generates power for our machines. What do we create, you wonder._

He turned to a machine. It spewed out a capsule. It was a dark red and black, and when he opened it, it was full of nails.

_These are the humana pila. Human ball. We capture you, like you captured us. Kept us slaves. Made us battle. You do not know how much pain we've gone through. A sawk with the ability sturdy was attacked by a rhypherior forced to use horn drill. His organs turned into soup. But he lived. He carried on living through the pain. The rhypherior was traumatised. Brothers forced to hurt brothers. Kyurem driven insane and forced to kill all the pokemon in the Opelucid area. Mewtwo created, mew hurt. Ditto, the failed mew creation discarded. All of this was because of humans. Humans created mewtwo in their pursuing of their own power, kyurem driven to insanity, pokemon put into endless agony. Humans want power. How many must die in this hopeless pursuit. We will make our pure new world._

_A world created by the sufferers._

_We will capture humans. And more. Our machines, of war, of torture, of terror, will turn the tables. Permanently._

_And then, and only then, will you know what true suffering is._

The abra came back in.

With a muk.

Vague psychic powers held my arms through the bars of my cage. I struggled and screamed but couldn't get away. I stared in horror as the muk neared my bleeding, tender, fleshy and vulnerable fingertips.

My fingers were concealed by the mortifying, poisonous, infectious grime that is muk. My movements exceeded thrashing, I was kicking and screeching and flailing. The pokemon around me looked surprised. The other humans looked just as scared. I watched their faces, their fearful eyes, their bleeding mouths and worn, scarred skin. Hands gripped the glass like spider fingers.

The pain receded, but not by much as the toxic sludge stained my fingers. Muk had pulled away. The psychic power released me.

_Does it hurt, human?_

Alakazam was smiling for sure now. Sadistic, bloody smile, with squinting eyes. All the pokemon were smiling. All grinning noxiously.

_Do you feel the pain? This is what we feel. When you burn us. When you freeze us, electrocute us, slash us. Force us to hurt each other. When we do this to you, you will know. You will wish you were never born. But wish all you want, human. Not even jirachi can save you now._

One of the other humans began crying desperately. I grabbed the bars and rattled them, howling insanely, screeching. Alakazam was unimpressed. He ordered the abra to leave. The muk went with them. The kadabra used their powers to carry the other cages out. Some of the other humans screamed, some wept, some sat, silent and shocked. Alakazam and I were alone.

I felt shuddersome horror in the pit of my stomach.

The music seemed louder.

It seeped through every crack in the wall, that dismal, depressing, creepy tune, that echoing music in the air. Everything was cold and dark.

_Human. Scum!_

His thought was a scream in my head. Not in my ears or the air, but just in my head, rattling in my subconscious. His hand flew out and I was thrown against the wall before it even made contact. Alakazam's burning eyes.

_You must perish. All humans must perish. Every human. Every trainer. Ranger. Breeder. You think you're helping us? By hurting us, forcing us to clear your obstacles, fight your battles, do your work. Pokemon have suffered. Pokemon have died. Your guilt, anguish, it does not mask the fact that it is still your fault. I have memorised everything. I remember every year of my twenty-thousand year lifespan. And not once, not once have I seen a human dying to save a pokemon._

I pressed my back against the glass. My fingers stung. My ankles burnt, my wrists ached. Alakazam's eyes were pulsing with veins. He neared me. His spoon was sharper than I imagined. Sharp and silver. Alakazam's fingers widened. My eyelids were torn apart. Shredded. My eyes sharply burnt, the psychic power held my head in place as I screamed and floundered, a fish under the knife.

_Human... you could say... you will not see this coming._

Ramming forwards with astonishing speed, he jammed the spoon into my eye socket. It scraped against the bone, hollow under my soft, burning eyeball, forcing a curdled roar of pain out of my throat. The energy pounded through the wires and the machines worked alarmingly fast. Alakazam brought his fist forwards and twisted the spoon. My eye was turned in the socket, the cord through it pulling and throbbing. I was in agony. Death would be a sweet relief.

_It hurts, human! You are in pain, human! I know this! Human, normally I would heal you. I would reuse your power. But you, you know. And I cannot risk this. You would never escape. But I cannot take the chance. I must purge the world of those like you. Nobody can know at this moment. It is too soon!_

He tore the spoon out, letting the blood spurt out. My chest fell. I could barely breathe. I felt as if the pain would kill me.

_You wish you were dead. You wish to die. I was going to keep you alive, show arceus's excremental residue like you no mercy. But I guess I could. Only this once._

I hiccuped for breath. Alakazam would be merciful. But how would he kill me? He had 5000 IQ points. He would know just how.

_I would have healed you... to hurt you more. But I'll keep you here. In lock down. I'll call in a comrade of mine later. To finish you off. He is imaginative. I'll grind your body into houndour meat...or turn it into bone meal... or incinerate it... concrete, the bottom of Lake Verity... it does not matter. I'll send him in later. You have time to think about what your life could have been if you were not so... curious._

His eyes drifted away to the far clock. It was cracked, but it worked.

_Do not expect to have much time._

And, with a flicker of purple light, he left the room, and I was alone in my agony and dread.

* * *

The Dusk Factory music. It is understated but scary. It is like the Fall City theme.

But you can hear the ghosts in the piece. You can hear the dead.

Another title for the music is 'Gordor is Lost'.

The background of the music is similar when reversed. But the foreground seems messed up. This is expected with most songs. But at this moment in time, it played, it was slow and it echoed through the empty walls, all I could hear. Entire body numb, eyes burnt out, the scent of blood blinding my senses. Just that music.

That music.

That _MUSIC!_

* * *

_You came here... innocent._

_But no human is innocent._

_We are not as pure as we think..._

_But neither are you._

_We are data._

_You are flesh._

_In the end,_

_We are all as bad as each other._


	6. Stars In Stolen Skies

My trainer caught me when I was... I don't know, only a few levels. I can't remember much from back then, I mean way back then. I was a cleffa, I think, yes, I know, I was a cleffa. I was in Mt. Moon, my brothers and sisters had been preparing for the dance, and had left me to play by myself. I think my mother and father had been arguing. I hated it when they argued. I never knew what to do. Mom would always cry. I didn't like it when mom cried. I cried with her.

I sat in my corner, playing with rocks, like I did when I was scared and had nobody to play with, when everyone near ran away all of a sudden. A big person came in, with a big, scary looking pokemon, and he hurt me, but not with the scary pokemon, with a smaller pokemon that also looked very scared, and put me in a pokeball. I was so scared. I didn't know where my family was and I wanted my mom. I wondered if this was my fault.

The big person took me out. I was very scared, I didn't know what was going on. He made me fight a bug. I was too scared to move, so I curled up into a ball. He sighed and switched me for the big pokemon. Then he put a machine on my head, and I was so afraid that I threw it off, and he put it back on me and shouted at me. I kept it on after that.

Then the big pokemon fought some other big pokemon, and they were screaming abuse at each other and attacking each other with fire and rocks, and I hid and cried for my mom, but the trainer kept me close, and the big pokemon hurt the other pokemon, and I was scared that he had killed it. It was very still and it wasn't blinking. But I felt a sudden rush of power, energy, like I had learned something useful and essential, like experience was slowly growing inside of me.

This happened many more times. The person, whose name I later discovered was Andy, would send out this big strong pokemon, which I discovered he had many of, then would find another big pokemon, sometimes it would 'belong' to someone else, and they would make them fight until one of them hurt the other so bad they couldn't fight anymore. It looked very vicious.

I saw, once, one of the large pokemon with four arms fight another pokemon who was massive and had giant hands, and the four-armed one hit it so brutally with lightning-quick punches that I saw it coughing blood and teeth, bruises appearing quickly. I felt very sorry.

One thing that quite horrified me was when my trainer... moved. I could tell it wasn't my trainer, my Andy, though. Andy took me to a man in a tent and changed my name from CLEFFA to KIRBEE. I don't know why. I guess it was a nickname. The man in the tent told Andy that it was a much better name. I was scared again, I didn't know what would happen and I could see him heading towards the pokemon center. He took away the metal hat that fed me experience and put me in a box.

I looked at the other pokemon, sometimes there were more than one of them, like clones, and they looked scared too, glaring at each other with big, angry eyes, growling, and I couldn't move, just think and wish as I rattled about and heard the distant mumble of voices through the wires.

Suddenly, I felt an unknown force lifting me by the collar. The others looked up at me as I was hoisted up and away by some invisible presence, looking both shocked and somewhat envious with those angry eyes. The force dropped my abruptly in a dark, black nothingness. I stumbled about, my legs barely moving from cramp, crying out. Cries answered me. I was met by one of the clones, his large fists swinging and skirt flared. He looked angry and afraid and confused. There were some others. One was small and fiery, his long snout leaving visible curls of smoke. There were two others, but one I remember was so big and so fearsome that it was shocking to be sharing the same nothing with it.

Then, a bright light blinded me, I heard the loud cries of the other pokemon as what seemed like a heavy steel door opened slowly, crankingly, and we all rushed out like blind, stupid animals. It was into a strange field, with many bushes, all lined up, it looked so false, and we all ran around, hiding, as we saw a scary man in a lab coat and a boy with a slingshot aimed at us. We all hid behind the bushes, crying out. The boy aimed and fired. It skimmed the fighting type by the hem of his skirt as he switched bushes. He then caught the fire type as it was about to jump, catching it and it disappeared in a burst of stars, screaming in fear as it was caught by a stranger.

My breath grew shallow as I began to run. The legend was snagged by the tail and was caught, its anguished cries dying out as the stars enveloped it. Time was running out. One of the pokemon I didn't mention, a Sinnohan creature that was so cute it was sickly, its floppy, fluffy pink ears sparkling, was curled up in fear and caught almost instantly as it dashed for an exit.

Now there was only me, the fighting type, and a Hoennian fire-type that looked so old, so cracked in its shell, that it looked like it was about to collapse. It coughed twice, fell over, and the pokeball struck it, leaving a painful-looking dent in its shell. It gave a sickening groan of its name, but didn't get past 'tork-' before the stars swallowed it, leaving nothing but a few dying coals and a spatter of caramelised blood.

I saw the boy across from the glass grunt, roaring something about how there wasn't enough time for both so he'd try get the hitmonchan. I saw the fighter crouch behind a bush, preparing to run, and I leapt out, trying to get close to the viewing glass, to break through with what meagre attack power I had, but the ball struck me on the side of the head, leaving a bloody bruise that still hasn't faded, even now, and I fell, coming down with a thump as my bones gave way and the stars clouded my vision. I saw the fighter fall to his knees, screaming, tearing at his eyes as he began to fade. He reached out with a gloved hand. The boy yelled that he'd got the damn cleffa, not the hitmonchan, what use was a cleffa anyway, it was crap. I felt like crying, not because of the aching bruise but because of the fighter's howls of pain. He was cloned. He hadn't been caught. He was now lost in a limbo between games.

I remained in a cold box for ages, beyond my physical form, as data. Surrounded by new, strange pokemon that chilled me. Coffins. Masks. Mummies. Centipedes. I was immobilised, terrified by these new creatures, the way they moved, their foreign groans and burning eyes. Suddenly; daylight. I was taken out into a new pokemon center. A new place. It was very cold. Apparently, I was a high level and could 'evolve' soon. I didn't know what this meant and was trapped by fear. I wasn't following my trainer anymore; I was in that icy capsule as a scramble of data.

Then I was out. Facing an ugly creature with bugging eyes and a flattened body. I was forced to do what I had feared back in Kanto; fight until one of us couldn't. My fists were swung this way and that, my tiny body hurled around and electricity, earth and icy cold water bashed me until I felt I couldn't breathe. With one last swing, I managed to knock out this creature, and this new trainer, Billy, tied some sort of bell around my neck, and even though its jingle as I moved soothed me somewhat, I was still confused and afraid.

For ages, he made me fight, forced ice creams and cookies down my throat, made me dance in humiliating musicals, had me painfully pounded by a so-called masseur, until I felt I couldn't take it any more. I felt like a twig bent so far it was about to snap, an elastic band about to break. The rage consumed me, overcame my tiny cleffa body, I knew who I was, I was not cleffa, I was not this 'KIRBEE', as he insisted on calling me.

I was... clefairy.

He seemed oddly amused of my change. Apparently, that was evolution. I was forced to pound other creatures into the dust, forced to eat junk and make a fool of myself, forced into insane happiness so if this would stop. He appeared happy, but not satisfied. Luckily, this would be over, as he now refused to use me in battle, and I watched, as a mess of codes, accustomed to the dull viewing point of my pokeball. I was still on the team, he just never used me anymore. Never fed me. Never took me to that idiotic massage artist. Never entered me in musicals. Just as I felt my body would permanently dissolve into data, I heard him yell in triumph.

He'd found a moon stone.

I knew what this was, of course, I was no idiot. My brothers and sisters had, too, 'evolved' apparently. They all did it in private on the night of the dance. They'd leave, clefairy, then would return, taller, bigger, different. Mainly; stronger. I missed my family and had a sudden homesickness for Johto. It made me sick to think that in Unova, I'd almost forgotten my home.

He took me out of my pokeball. The harsh light almost blinded me and the fresh air made me cough and gag suddenly, my physical muscles cramping and my body aching. He took me and pressed the moon stone close to my forehead. I struggled; it was burning, stretching my body and skin, the change was suddenly terrifying; before, I was numbed with rage, but now, as I stood in the unfamiliar sunlight, it seemed unbearable. But then it stopped. I looked at myself.

I was a clefable.

He then returned me, the shock angrily biting my muscles as I went back to data as quickly as I went out. He put me back into the box, with all those strange faces, and there I remained. There was nothing to do but try to talk in our separate tongues. We couldn't move or interact, just listen and speak, their strange eyes meeting mine occasionally.

He finally took me out again, when I though the box would drive me insane. Apparently, he was 'trading' me to his friend. I might have missed those foreign pokemon. At least they tried to speak to me, even if I didn't understand them. He took off my bell and suddenly I was so afraid again, everything was so much worse than before, I panicked and flailed, but then he thrust this pokeball at me, as if he wanted me to hold it, and I did, clutching it in fear. He returned me to my pokeball (which amused me momentarily; I was inside a pokeball holding a pokeball) and warped into a strange room, space distorting and popping my giant ears.

I heard the mumbling noises, asking if 'KIRBEE' was an OK name, agreeing, saying that they'd trade KIRBEE for EELEKTRIK, that KIRBEE was holding a master ball, EELEKTRIK was holding a lucky egg. I was scared now more than ever as I saw a horrible monster, a giant eel with soup-blender teeth and bug eyes, and it slowly creeped over and passed me, reaching my trainer, Billy hugging it, stealing the egg away. What was this stranger doing?

I tried to scramble away from the unknown trainer who tapped his foot so impatiently and scowled at me, but all of a sudden everything froze, and I heard cursing and angry voices, and everything broke, turning into static and codes and glitch boxes and more static, the voices of two EELEKTRIK, as if... as if they'd been cloned.

Everything was dark. I stumbled, then saw glitches and broken wires and data. I wondered if I was dreaming, but everything ached, there was a searing pain in my neck. I looked down. Saw my reflection in exposed codes. My neck was broken, my head lying at an odd angle, my pink cheeks a dull, sunken grey. I was surprised at how unsurprised I was.

Then I met the hitmonchan. His arms were hanging off limply and his skull looked cracked open, as if he'd been hit badly with a rock, a thin layer of congealing blood lining the wound. He told me, quite simply, that I'd been lost between games, that, while being exchanged, I'd been trapped in that vulnerable position between the two, and that the eelektrik had been cloned as a result. Now I was in a limbo between games, like had happened to him in the chamber of bushes. He then told me that there was a way to get back; but it was risky.

I could visit a shedinja. He knew what to do. He lived in a secret room somewhere far away, a paradise inhabited by pokemon, a Utopia filled with pokemon that used to be humans. All the pokemon there used to be humans before they died. The difference was that only few remember. Apparently, every human was turned into a pokemon after death, with no memory of being a human. Then they'd live in this wonderful world, before dying again, and going to the human world as a pokemon. Then, when they died... they died. That was the end.

I hesitantly agreed. You couldn't choose where you'd go and you'd be turned into some random pokemon, but it was better than limbo. I asked him why he didn't go. He claimed that he did not wish to be a ball of poisonous fumes, a doll with a false grudge, a misery-causing crone or Giratina's servant. He said that, in limbo, he could wander forever, alone with his thoughts. I left him to it. It was his choice, not mine.

I entered the doorway to this secret bazaar. There was a Mime Jr selling massages and aromatherapy (this took me back to the sickly memory of the Castelia massage woman), a swalot selling items, a lickitung cleaning them, and, in the corner, a shedinja. He sat, eyes sunken, watching with a hateful look. I approached him and questioned him about taking me back to the living world, to a game where I was alive, not trapped between universes.

He hushed me with a voice like steel shredding steel, and told me that it came with a price. He was not at all fazed by my state; the Mime Jr. had passed out, the swalot had shrieked and fainted and the lickitung had soap in his eyes and couldn't see. I handed him the pokeball and, regarding it as a filthy object, reluctantly agreed that it was just acceptable. Opening a gateway, he gave me no time for questions or fear as he pushed me in, leaving me to tumble until I hit something, and closing the gateway before the other three could wake up or realise what was going on.

I fell for a while, my body shifting into a ghostly mass, twisting and writhing and changing from muscle to gas and spirit. Then I hit something. It didn't hurt. I just bounced. It was almost like I passed through it. It took me a while to notice where I was. Mt. Moon! My home! Oh, how I missed, it, I did so, I wished to see all of my family and friends, to see them again after all this time.

But I came to the slow realization that they would not remember or recognise me.

My family would see me as whatever ghostly creature I'd become. Not little cleffa, the baby who cried all the time and played with rocks, rolling them idly as her mother was hit and punched. I would have cried if it wasn't for my non-physical form. But I still wanted to see them, just so I could see what they looked like, even if they didn't remember me. I had to.

So I crept up, seeing them sleep. They were so peaceful. There were more children. All looked the same. Then there were the older kids, and the big kids, and then, my mom. Lying down, exhausted, a big bruise around her eye. I tried to smile. I knelt down to see her closer, kiss her goodbye, feel her breath on my cheek one last time.

Her eyes flew open. She began to cough and choke blood. I whimpered. Mom? What's wrong? Are you okay? Y-your eyes, your face, what's happening?

She fell to the floor, twitching. I nudged her with my nose. Mom?

I noticed my pointed tail. In her chest.

I had killed her. Oh arceus, I had killed her. I flew around the roof, cursing to myself, oh arceus almighty I had killed my mother, and my little brothers, sisters, cousins, would wake up soon, wondering why their auntie, mommy, grandma, wasn't waking up and why she was so still, I freaked out and fled the cave, not even going through cave mouths, just tunneling through walls, empty and useless.

I've evolved now. I feel guilty. I feel guilty every day. I want to try and die, but I have no wrists to cut, no rope to hang my neck, I float but barely and I cannot be used in battle. I am useless. So I just float from region to region, taking out my hate on others. I'm the shadow of what pokemon I used to be.

The ship that crashed into Olivine harbour, killing many young trainers, that was me causing havoc below deck.

The aeroplane crash, Unova Flight 108 to Hoenn that crashed over Mt. Coronet, also me, causing chaos between pokemon on board.

The Magnet Train crash in Saffron, setting off countless explosions near the Indigo Plateau? I hardly need to explain.

I was behind the Great Sableye Massacre in Hoenn. The ship sinking in Sinnoh, casting trainers into the icy waters of Snowpoint Bay. The Hoennian cable-car accident. The Dusk Factory explosions, the power station disaster, the Whirl Islands tsunami, the Almian plague. I was behind it every time. But you never know me. Never notice I'm there. Not until it's too late.

What pokemon am I?

Shouldn't it be obvious?

Ghastly? No. Absol? Absol-lutely not. Ha ha. Dusknoir? Don't be silly.

These all have too much attention on them. Everyone will suspect a trainer with a creepy ghost or dark type. I'm not either, not even close. So what am I?

A tunneling creature, something you may have been annoyed by countless times, something with useless wings that barely fly, whose only escape is digging. Partly blind, low stats, common as muck? Still can't guess?

I'm dunsparce.

But, as I said, I've evolved.

_And I can't wait to show you what I evolve into..._


	7. Hustle Of A Vital Spirit

I snapped a feebas up in my beak and put it in my sack. Life as a delibird was rather carefree; giving gifts to good pokemon, collecting shiny things passengers dropped, occasionally helping out Santa. But one thing I had to do was get food for my babies. They were on the cliff pass, waiting for me in their nest. I caught one more little fish and decided to head home.

But as I waddled back to my nest, I became aware of the sound of footsteps behind me. I began to fly, but as soon as I started off, the footsteps became louder, more apparent, and a screeching noise began. I turned and saw a human boy and his infernape. I didn't have time for this. I began flying away but a sharp punch from the infernape shot me down.

Gasping for lost breath, I grabbed a fish and hurled it at the boy. He smiled and told his pokemon about delibird sharing food with lost travellers. I tried to run but the infernape sniped me with his flamethrower. Shrieking as it burnt my feathers, I used aurora beam. My father was a dewgong, you see. The infernape was barely fazed; it took a second to recover and followed close with a close combat. Dodging, I saw the deep dent it left in the cliff's wall.

I looked up. Idiot would start an avalanche if he wasn't careful. Then I felt a sharp pain in my side and it hurt to breathe; the infernape began with flame wheel and followed up with brick break. I panted heavily. I needed to get the food to my chicks. Five baby delibird, all waiting for mommy to return, and here I was, caught in pointless combat with some fool and his overpowered, over-exaggerated, flea-ridden monkey.

I tried to hop away, flying, but barely, with my burnt wings. The boy yelled that he was going to complete his pokedex one way or another. He threw a pokeball at me but I batted it away with my charred feathers. A stabbing pain in my side crept up and I squawked in pain. He threw another. And another. And another. I kept kicking them away, batting them, even pecking them, as I hopped to the cliff edge. I needed to get to my baby chicks. They needed their food.

The child gave up. He wasn't going to catch me, he said, and I breathed a sigh of relief. But then I saw his infernape run at me, fists flying in an avalanche of punches, and I realised that if he couldn't catch me; he'd kill me. I needed to feed my babies. I needed...

I need...

The last thing I saw was the infernape and its trainer. And I fell, tumbling down the mountain, into the powdery snow below. My babies...

I needed to...

My babies...

_The boy edged around the cliff, pebbles scattering down the sheer drop. His infernape had been retreated into its pokeball. He heard a quiet cheeping. More delibird! That last one had escaped him, the damn thing, he needed a delibird to trade to his friend for a spoink to complete his pokedex, and he'd released the one he had before. These sounded like chicks, too, so they'd be easy to catch._

_As he rounded the corner, he was confronted by a horrible sight. A nest of starving delibird chicks. Only two remained; the carcasses of the other three were lying in the nest, and two of the bodies had signs of being eaten. The live chicks looked starved; their chests were caved in, eyes bugging, necks weak and legs skinny. Their tiny wings looked tattered. They gnawed at the bodies, looking disgusted and afraid, letting out feeble cries. How could a mother delibird abandon her chicks like that?_

_Then she noticed the markings; a second button, slightly fluffier crest, slightly curved beak. Just like the delibird on the pass. He watched in horror as one of the chicks tore a tattered wing off a body and chewed on it with its cracked beak, whimpering and chirping weakly. They were starving to death up here._

_He remembered delibird's pokedex description, remembered the hurry of the delibird back on the pass._

It nests at the edge of sharp cliffs. It spends all day carrying food to its awaiting chicks.

_And he came to the slow realisation that he had done a terrible thing._


	8. Crushed Crystal - Hacked ROM

**An urban legend addressing the mystery man himself; Eusine. Warning; it's a longpasta.  
Quick note: This pasta is as much Komodoking/Kitkattykomodo's as it is mine. Check her fanfics out. That is all. Enjoy.**

* * *

I had, after much searching, found a ROM of Pokemon Crystal. For some reason, I had found it once and couldn't find it again, no matter how I searched. I browsed sites until I found one. Finally! I had Red Rescue Team, Emerald, and Creepy Black; I loved creepypasta, you see, and Creepy Black was classic, I just regretted there wasn't a ROM of Strangled Red. Anyway, Crystal was cool; I loved Johto, an cyndaquil was my old favourite pokemon. Checking for viruses, I downloaded it and loaded my VBA. Call it stealing, but who hasn't?

My heart sank when it reached the title screen. Pokemon Crushed Crystal. The scene on the title was suicune sitting there, and a young child dressed in blue and purple hugging its neck with a scared look in his eye. Hacked.

I was, at first, pissed that the ROM I'd searched for was a mindless hack. Yes, I was mad. But my initial anger turned into curiosity. This sounded fun. Maybe this would provide a few laughs. It seemed a good idea to look at what may lay ahead. Hacked, but ah well. Worth a play.

I started playing and chose 'new game'. I was immediately greeted by the animation of a gem smashing on the floor and breaking into many pieces. There was no sound, not until I had put my volume up and the Celadon theme started. Not Lavender or Drought or any creepy shit like that, but Celadon. Cheery, happy, quite pleasant.

As the screen faded in, I wondered why I hadn't seen Professor Elm talking about pokemon, and why I hadn't been asked my name or gender. I saw an overworld sprite of the child I saw. He sat (or stood, it was impossible to tell) in a cosy room with an old man. I guessed it was his granddad.

Grandpa: Now, little Eusine, do you want me to tell you a story?

Eusine: Yeah, grandpa, tell the story about SUICUNE!

Ah, Eusine. The man who was nuts for suicune. His battle theme was good, and he was a decent guy. Not like that rival, who ambushes you in Mt. Moon when you're _training..._ anyway, I wanted to know more about this character, so I continued.

Grandpa: SUICUNE? You've heard that thousands of times. How about RAIKOU or ENTEI?

Eusine: No, grandpa, I want the SUICINE story! SUICUNE!

Grandpa: Okay, Eusine. I'll tell you the SUICUNE story. Once upon a time...

The screen faded to black. Pity. I might've wanted to hear the suicune story.

The screen faded back into a grassy field. Eusine and Grandpa were walking along it. Something like a ninetales sprite was following them. It looked blurry; Crystal didn't have the graphics of Heartgold and Soulsilver, but it looked a little like ninetales. They walked for a while, interrupting occasionally with;

Eusine: How long now, grandpa?

Grandpa: Not long now.

Eventually, after enough time for me to get some toast and eat it, they had finished walking. What they had stopped at was curious. They were standing in a graveyard. I didn't know that Johto had a burial ground. As far as I could remember, it was the only one of the five main regions that didn't have one. There was a large, rusty gate and many mossy stones. Grandpa led Eusine to a gravestone on the east-most side. The music had slowed to a creepy, minimalist theme that reminded me of the Dusk Factory theme from Pokemon Ranger.

Granpa: Okay, Eusine. This is where your mommy and daddy are. I'm going to say a little prayer and put down these flowers. Now, I don't want you to go in Mausoleum, understood?

Eusine: Yes, grandpa...

Grandpa: I'm serious, Eusine, don't go near the Mausoleum! I don't want you going there!

Eusine seemed to step back without moving.

Eusine: Grandpa, you're hurting me...

Grandpa: ...I'm sorry, Eusine. But you've got to promise me not to go in the Mausoleum and not to leave the cemetery!

Eusine: I promise, granpda. NINETALES will keep me company, won't you, NINETALES?

I heard a ninetales cry above the music and the screen faded for a second. I realised that I could walk. I pressed 'enter', which I had set for the Menu button, and opened my trainer card. It wasn't so much of a trainer card as a kiddie Cool-Cardz card. There was 'Pocket Money' instead of Money (Eusine had 100 pokédollars), the badges were cute cartoon stickers (which Eusine had three of; a bunny, a cat and a spider) and everything was sweet, childish and adorable.

I excited to my bag. He didn't have much. Just a potion, an antidote, a cell phone, and a suicune pokédoll. He didn't have any pokemon, even though ninetales was following him, and he didn't have a pokedex. I assumed this was because he was simply too young. I went back to the overworld and walked around. Walking about, I looked at the gravestones.

CATRIN. 14 YEARS. CORRUPTED.

MORGAN. 12 YEARS. CORRUPTED.

DOUCHEBAG. 10 YEARS. CORRUPTED. (I giggled at that one)

I read through more and more. Similar. All were names like Jeff, Mike, Ellie, Steve, even a few jokes like Fatass, I'm Gay (I had done this before; during the game, anyone who says your name says 'I'm Gay', and it provides a few laughs) and such, but all had the same last line.

CORRUPTED.

Most likely, all the gravestones said similar things. Curiosity overcame me, and I followed the small path to the back of the cemetery. Sure enough, there was the mausoleum. An old marble building, covered in vines and moss, even with the not-great graphics I could recognise the building's broken-down state. The doors were two large gates which looked rusted.

I tried to go in.

The doors are locked...

Eusine: NINETALES, break the door open!

There was a ninetales cry.

NINETALES doesn't want to!

Eusine: NINETALES, now!

…

NINETALES used TAKE DOWN!

The door didn't fly off; it just disappeared with a 'ping' and a crash. I turned and talked to ninetales. His sprite shivered and I heard a ninetales cry again.

NINETALES doesn't want to go in! Go in anyway? Yes/No

I chose yes and I rolled my eyes. Pussy.

Entering, the creepy theme turned into an unnerving chant. Somewhere between the Drought theme from Ruby, the Dusk Factory theme and Ghetsis' Battle theme. I walked along a seemingly endless stone corridor with vine-covered walls. A text box popped up.

Eusine looked behind him...

(A faint pokemon roar sounded in the distance)

Nothing there...

I checked my Trainer Card. Eusine was hunched over. He was pale and scared. I carried on walking. It was faster. After a while, I reached a stone coffin. I walked around it and the sound of a pokemon cry came from the speakers, barely audible over the music. Another text box.

Something's drawing closer...

I pressed Z (I had set it as A on my VBA) on the coffin. A crack in the ceiling gave a pixel light on the stone and a bunch of grey dots resembled a wilted rose.

Eusine: What is this?

The lid moved!

Eusine: W-Wah!

The battle animation started and I was greeted by, king of ghosts himself, haunter. No pokemon crept onto battle on my side; just young Eusine's battle sprite. I checked his pokemon.

NINETALES isn't here...

Ah.

Then, I tried his bag. He had the antidote and potion, as I mentioned before, but I guessed that those wouldn't be much help. I remembered about the suicune doll and searched it under battle items, but as soon as I selected it, a text box popped up that said;

Eusine hugged the SUICUNE DOLL!

HAUNTER used CURSE!

Of curse. Pardon the pun.

Curse had always been a favourite Nightmare Fuel move of mine. A pokemon hammers a nail into its own head then the head of its enemy, lowering its HP to half and cursing the foe. Not exactly pleasant. The nail drove into the haunter and then appeared next to Eusine's head.

Eusine: W-wah! Grandpa! H-help!

This was entertaining, but sounded terrifying, the curse being laid on a human, a nail in its head, draining life out of them, dead in the dust. But then the screen went black. I waited a second for it to reappear. When it did, haunter was on top of Eusine, a nail hovering in the air next to his head.

A roar sounded and the crack in the ceiling opened more. A blue blur fell through, striking haunter down. The screen faded into a strange cut-scene. Standing in the uneasy shadows, separating haunter from the shivering Eusine, was Suicine, in all its glory. It roared, opening its mouth to show a set of pointed canine teeth, and used aurora beam.

It was surprisingly more beautiful than the battle animation. A beam of light, splitting into many, fading blue, purple and green, glowing and rippling and it hit haunter and exploded into one big, white eruption. Slowly, it faded into the overworld.

Eusine sat, alone, in the crypt. No haunter. No Suicune. Just Eusine, sitting there. The minimalist macabre music had stopped. The only thing left was a low rumble. Then, in a wonderful boom of sound, the Celadon Theme began, as ninetales dashed up in an unnatural speed, bouncing up and down in front of Eusine.

Slowly, his grandfather walked up to him. The music stopped. There was a long pause as they stood there, the text boxes only displaying '…'. I tried to walk but Grandpa just walked in front of me. Eventually, I pressed Z and decided to talk to him.

Grandpa: ...Eusine, do you know why I always asked you to stay away from the masoleum?

Eusine: But Grandpa...

Grandpa: Do you know why only pokemon are buried in Lavender Tower? Haven't you heard the legends about the White Hand and Buried Alive?!

Eusine: Grandpa...

Grandpa: H-how did you survive?! Eusine, how did you escape?!

Eusine: SUICUNE, Grandpa... it was SUICUNE...

Eusine's sprite lay down, like the old man blocking the way in Red/Blue, and ninetales picked him up. His pixel body was lying on ninetales' back. There was a pause, and the music turned into one long, continuous note, a screech of sound broken only by crackles of static, before resuming. Celadon theme, but slow. Echoing as Grandpa, Eusine and ninetales left, it faded out and so did the screen.

When it faded back in, it showed Eusine standing in front of a mirror. He was in a bedroom; and I guessed it was his when I realised that the walls were plastered with posters of suicune, there were suicune dolls on the floor and, concentrating, I saw the suicune bedsheets on his bed. This guy loved suicune, all right.

A lady walked into his room. Her sprite had blonde hair and a blue dress, and she walked up to Eusine, dropping a pokeball on the floor.

Amanda: Here, kid. This is your first pokemon!

Eusine: Thanks, Amanda...

Amanda: Professor Birch told me to give it to you, since you can't go outside. Must suck to be you, having chickenpox on your tenth birthday.

Eusine: …

I checked my trainer card. It was now a proper card; no stickers, but no badges either. Eusine's sprite looked older now. He had a towel draped over his shoulders and red blotches on his face. I smirked. I had been sick on my birthday once too; the difference was he was meant to be getting his first pokemon today. I exited and pressed Z on the pokeball. There was a flash of light and the sprite of a houndour popped up. It jumped up and down and Eusine chased it around.

Eusine: Kaff kaff... thank you, Amanda.

Amanda: Y'gonna nickname that little guy?

To my surprise, it wouldn't let me nickname the pokemon; but unsurprisingly enough Eusine just chose the nickname 'SUICUNE'.

Amanda: Well, Eusine, since your grandpa kicked it and all in the snowstorm, I've never seen you so happy. Good thing you've got me. He wasn't really doing a good job, either, we found you starved in the basement, that old coot just left you to die...

Eusine: NO! That's not true! Shut up! Grandpa was a great man and he was a better parent than you, or mom, or dad, or anyone could be! He didn't walk out on me or anything! And... and I didn't survive because of you! I survived because of SUICUNE! SUICUNE stayed by my side until help came! SUICUNE treated me like its child, and it showed that it loved me! SUICUNE showed me that there was hope! SUICUNE-

Amanda: Don't get excited, kid, you can play in the garden since your chickenpox is clearing up, but don't overdo it. I'm going shopping with Whitney and you've got to look after yourself.

She walked out of the room. What a bitch! I watched as Eusine turned to his houndour and then went to his bed. A text box popped up.

Eusine got BLUE DYE!  
Eusine got WHITE DYE

Eusine: See, SUICUNE? I got these from Amanda's bedroom. It won't hurt a bit. It's just like getting a bath. And a purple blanket will make the perfect cape, and the illusion is complete!

The screen faded to black and the pokemon healing noise sounded; that annoying tune that plays in pokemon centers when Nurse Joy healed your pokemon. Houndour's battle sprite popped up. It was now blue and white, just like suicune, with a purple blanket tied around its neck.

Eusine: Haha, you look great! Kaff kaff...

SUICUNE: Ruff ruff!

SUICUNE seems happy with its new look!

Eusine: Let's go outside, SUICUNE, and we can play ball!

I smiled. That was kind of heartwarming. Eusine had lost his grandfather, his parents, and was being raised by one bitch of a girl, but he was having so much fun with his little houndour. For the next part of the game, I walked around in the tall grass outside, battling hoothoots and sentrets, a caterpie or two. When Amanda arrived home, there was an argument about dying the houndour's fur and all, which was amusing, ending in Amanda storming back out again, yelling that Eusine should just go on his adventure and never come back.

Then I realised.

Eusine was being abandoned.

I walked out of the house, after checking in the trash cans (it's a habit of mine in pokemon games) and finding a super potion (result!). Out of the house, I realised that I was in Celadon. The tune was upbeat and cheery, and I challenged the gym immediately. It was quite easy; houndour, sorry, SUICUNE, had an advantage in the grass type gym. SUICUNE was kind of strong, too. He seemed to get better than usual when levelling up, and his stats seemed to be quite high anyway. Every time I sent him out in battle, he would be dressed up as suicune, and his cry would sound more and more like suicune.

As I left, after visiting the condominiums and arcade, and buying some stuff at the department store, I left to route 7. Strangely, every time I tried to catch a pokemon, Eusine would say;

Eusine: ...I don't want that.

Until I tried to catch snubbull.

It just caught it, and it didn't register in my pokedex; I just remembered that I didn't have one, I'd just been thrown out by Amanda, and it also wouldn't let me nickname it. Eusine, again, nicknamed it SUICUNE.

Eusine: Calm down, snubbull, this won't hurt.

The noise again- and when I checked the snubbull's sprite, it was blue and white with a purple cape again. Eusine was only catching dog pokemon- so he could turn them into suicunes of his own. This was creepy to me. But, I carried on, catching any dog pokemon I could, and eventually reached the League. Each of my 'suicunes' were high levels, had good moves and high stats, each one painted as suicune. I beat the league kinda easily, and defeated the champion with only two faints.

One thing I noticed was that Eusine's sprite seemed to age. After I beat every gym leader, he'd be a little taller, he'd wear slightly different clothing, his hair would change, and he'd look more and more like the adult Eusine I saw in the game. Anyway, he was a teenager, looked about 17 by the time I'd defeated the league, and I decided to see if he'd let me catch any more pokemon.

But as I left the league and went into Victory Road, I realised something.

I'd played Red and Blue, but I didn't remember the Victory Road looking quite like this. The paths looked different, and there were caves where I didn't remember there being before. Since the last time I played Red was only days ago, I was suspicious- and decided to make an exit. But I'd been walking for a while- and I was lost. Give me a slap around the head for not bringing an escape rope or teaching one of my pokemon dig.

After searching aimlessly for a while, and getting some more toast, I found a cave. It looked promising- it lead to a long, winding corridor and that usually means something. I walked along it, and was reminded of the mausoleum. The mossy walls, the way Eusine turned and text boxes popped up saying things like;

Eusine looked behind him-

(A pokemon cry)

Nothing there...

Suddenly, the screen began to shake. The music turned into a loud rumbling and stones fell down. Eusine's sprite turned around and I began to run back through the tunnel, muttering 'Oh crap' over and over, when a loud crash came from the speakers and a large rock fell in front of Eusine.

Eusine: The cave's collapsing! Help! SUICUNE, use rock smash!

Houndour's sprite appeared and rammed the stone- but another rock fell and hit it. I recoiled. There was a sickening crunch and a high-pitched houndour roar. I was shocked- I had grown attached to that pokemon.

Eusine: SUICUNE! SUICUNE...

...

Eusine: All of you! Help!

All the sprites popped out and ran around insanely, the music turning frantic and angry, rocks tumbling. I watched each pokemon get crushed, one by one, each one accompanied by a dreadfully realistic snap and crunch, then a screaming cry. It was horrible- it made me sick, it was terrifying and exciting at the same time. I lost control of Eusine's sprite and it began to run, dashing and running through the maze of falling stones- and the screen froze as a boulder was just pixels away from Eusine's head. I breathed heavily.

The screen faded to black- and a blur of blue flashed across the screen.

I heard suicune's cry- faint and in the distance- but I heard it.

When the screen faded back in, Eusine was standing in front of a row of gravestones- and I realised that he was in Lavender Tower. Cliché, maybe. But I could move now. He moved slowly, and I checked his trainer card- his arm was in a cast, his eyes were red and his foot was in plaster. He had his head down and a bunch of flowers in his left hand. Realising what it was, I cupped a hand to my mouth. He was visiting the gravestones of all the pokemon that died that day.

Eusine put down the flowers.

Eusine: ...Good night, SUICUNE... all of you... the real SUICUNE did what you couldn't, but you all did everything you could... and now, even if I need DROWZEE to cure the sleepless nights, and HAUNTER to steal away my nightmares, I'll never forget any of you...

Eusine fell to his knees!

Eusine began sobbing!

Eusine: Oh god, it's all my fault, if I hadn't been so reckless this would never have happened!

Eusine broke down!

I began feeling the need to comfort him- if I could only touch his shoulder and tell him it was okay, if I could, but I just had to watch as he broke down and wallowed in self-hate. Blame me for getting attached to pixels, but it was just painful to watch. An electrode sprite popped up.

ELECTRODE: Buzz buzz?

Eusine: ...Oh, ELECTRODE, I'm sorry, I shouldn't just wallow here. I've got to move on. I've got to find SUICUNE. Find SUICUNE and thank it. Thank it for everything.

He walked out, electrode following, and the screen faded to black. After waiting, I realised it wasn't fading back in. It had frozen. Well, damnit. I turned it off and left it alone for a while.

After a few days I returned to it- and was surprised by what I saw. It was Eusine, talking to Kris, in the Brass Tower.

Eusine: I dug a hole here, too... I was shocked! SUICUNE raced by like a blur, right in front of my eyes! For ten years I chased SUICUNE, and I finally got to see it. I'm all choked up! Player, I owe this all to you! Thank you! I heard that the legendary Pokémon of Ecruteak test chosen humans by allowing them to get close. I'm going to track SUICUNE. Kris, let's meet again! Farewell!

I watched as they spoke, exchanging the usual pokemon dialogue, and then watched as Kris left. Usually Eusine left first. But then Eusine turned around.

Eusine: That girl... ugh, how stupid can she be? I've been searching for SUICUNE all my life! She'll just get in my way...

Eusine was surprisingly bitter. Well, the main player isn't always exactly a great trainer, are they? I walked out of there, and began walking across the Johto region. Eusine was older still- he was now a grown man. He had his three pokemon- drowzee, haunter and electrode- and began beating the gym leaders. But every time I went somewhere, or tried to go somewhere, he'd refuse to move- saying;

Eusine: SUICUNE isn't that way. I have to thank SUICUNE.

And I'd have to try another way.

And Kris kept getting in the way- when I went the way Eusine wanted, she'd be there, scaring suicune away. It was really frustrating- I understood why Eusine was so crazy for suicune now- it had looked after him and saved his life three times- possibly even more. He only wanted to thank it, to share one more moment, to travel the world with his saviour- SUICUNE.

Everything was pretty much fine, no creepy stuff, until I reached Cerulean Cape once more. Kris was already there- her pokemon in a simplified battle with suicune, and Eusine turned away from her.

Eusine: That brat will never catch SUICUNE. It's too powerful for her. She'd just condemn it to a box for all eternity- it'd die in silence. Her pokemon will never beat the great SUICUNE. I'll wait for it to finish her off, then I can give it the gratitude I've been waiting all my life to give.

I saw a click- and a flash- and Kris jumped.

Kris: Aha! I caught SUICUNE! Did you see, Eusine?

Eusine: …

Kris: Haha! You're too stunned to speak! My mad skills have that effect on people! Well, see you, Eusine! I caught SUICUNE, yay!

And she left. Eusine's sprite shook.

Eusine fell to his knees!

Eusine began sobbing!

Eusine: My life... my thanks... the thing I've been looking for all these years... and that child...

I tried walking, and Eusine's sprite said-

Eusine: Let's go to the Underground Path on Route 7.

The music turned soft and deep, a twinkle of piano notes. It grabbed at my heart. I felt a lump in my throat. I checked his trainer sprite-

His head was down, his eyes weren't visible- but he had tears going down his cheeks. He slouched and, when I stared closely, he shivered and jumped occasionally. He walked painfully slowly, and it took a while to reach Route 7. It was so near his home.

He stopped outside the gateway to the Underground Path. You know the place that's locked in Heartgold and Soulsilver because of dangerous pokemon battles? There. He took out his pokemon.

Eusine: You all know what to do?

DROWZEE: Zzz... zzz...

HAUNTER: ...Grr...grr...

ELECTRODE: Bzz bzz...

Eusine: I know this is dangerous. But I want people to remember. That brat killed my dream. I'm going to go out... with a bang. And people won't forget Eusine. This is for SUICUNE; who saved me, gave me hope, and will die lonely and sick in a PC box. Let's go.

He walked into the path and was confronted by three bikers. There were many behind them; all with their pokemon out. I guessed they were battling.

Biker Maurice: What are you doing here?!

Biker Gareth: Yeah, bikers only!

Biker Harry: Grr! Prepare to battle!

Eusine: ...Haunter?

Haunter: Hhhh...

The screen faded into a sickening cutscene. Haunter went behind one of the bikers and licked the back of his neck. He turned purple, shivering, screaming, his eyes bleeding. I winced at that- the sound effects were morbidly realistic. His screams turned to a low weeping sound and he lay, twitching on the floor. His friends tried to run- but their path was cut off by electrode.

It exploded and sent one of them flying. His charred, broken body and horrible scream were terrifying. I was frozen; eyes glued to the computer screen, unable to tear myself away from the magically gruesome work some sick person performed on this game. His body slumped against the wall, blood smearing, and more biker's bodies were thrown about, necks breaking, bones snapping, blood spraying- all trapped between haunter's lick, turning them into shivering wrecks, and electrode who sent them flying, burnt and screaming.

Drowzee cornered some of them- and they screamed as it laughed, draining the life out of them. Then the realisation hit me- Kris had stolen Eusine's dream, and Eusine was stealing theirs. The three pokemon caused bloody, horrible chaos, tearing the screaming, crying bikers apart- some of them pleaded in horrible, realistic voices that they had loved ones and children and families, and were burnt and torn limb from limb and exploded, each death more gruesome than the last- bikers being torn in half by explosions, insides spraying, heads torn off, as Eusine stood in the middle of the turmoil.

And laughed.

That laugh will never leave me. It screamed and cried and came from the mouth of the disaster. I tried to look away but couldn't- and the screen panned out- and all of the bikers were dead. The walls were covered in blood and bodies littered the path. The cutscene ended there. I took a deep breath.

Eusine's sprite turned to his pokemon.

Eusine: You can go now.

Pokemon: ?

Eusine: I'm releasing you. Try not to get in trouble. Go as far as you can, and make a new life for yourselves in Hoenn or something. You've done good. Goodbye, my friends.

Slowly, the sprites turned around and, one by one, left. Electrode let out a feeble cry and left. I could walk. I tried to leave, but Eusine said-

Eusine: No. I'm not leaving.

And the other path was cut off by a deep hole created by the explosion. I checked his pokemon- nothing there. In his bag was nothing but two items-

A chair.

And a rope.

A deep feeling of dread gripped me. I checked his trainer card one last time.

Eusine. Trainer type- Crushed.

His badges were hanging off the spaces and were grimy and cracked. His trainer sprite was standing, head down, slouching. Blood covered half of his face. After I stared in disbelief at it, his hand crept to his face. It moved his fringe away- to reveal the saddest eyes I've ever seen. He was crying, weeping silently, eyes wide with grief and dread, tears coursing down his face. But the most painful thing about Eusine was the smile on his face. Lips drawn back into an agonising smile, lips trembling, teeth gritted as the tears fell around the crooked grin.

I went back to the bag and accessed the only two items- the chair and rope.

I selected the rope.

Eusine: Get the chair. I can't reach.

Afraid and curious, I chose the chair. It appeared on the floor and Eusine stepped onto it. For one last time, it turned to a cut scene. I was waiting for something as gruesome as last time- but all I saw was Eusine, crying softly, with that painful smile, holding in his clenched, white-knuckled fists, the rope. One end was tied into a noose.

He stood on his tiptoes- only now did I realise how tall he really was- and he tied the rope onto a beam above the hole created by the explosion. I realised what he was about to do. I found myself trying to stop him- pressing buttons, trying to speak to him, typing, shaking the computer, but I knew there was nothing I could do.

But Eusine looked up.

And right into my eyes.

Those big blue eyes, shrunk to pinpricks, shining with tears, broken with twitches. His face was broken by the crazed smile, quivering and hiccuping. But those eyes, tears streaming down, were full of everything I'd seen him go through- all the fake suicunes, all the times he'd been saved, the haunter from the start, every battle and every encounter- and then Kris stole everything from him, and I remembered the game's title-

Crushed Crystal.

Eusine's grin faded into a small, sorry smile.

Eusine leant forwards and slipped the noose around his neck.

Eusine bent his knees.

A tear fell down his cheek and mine.

Eusine: ...Sorry... I'll be with you soon, SUICUNE... but I'm so... so... sorry...

And he stepped forwards.

Into the pit.

There was a terrible crack.

And I opened my eyes.

I began to shake. I touched the screen. The words 'Crushed Crystal' appeared.

But that wasn't it. I watched it fade back to a house- a little boy, wearing yellow clothing. He had a grey blanket, I noticed, and he walked up to an old lady.

Basile: Grandma, grandma, tell me a story?

Grandma: Of course, Basile. What story would you like?

Basile: RAIKOU! Yeah! RAIKOU is the coolest!

Grandma: Haha, young Basile. Okay, here's the RAIKOU story again...

Shock overcame me. Who was this 'Basile'? But then everything began happening again. The story. The walk. Even the lines of 'Here are your mommy and daddy' and 'Don't go in the mausoleum'. The only difference was that his grandma sent a machoke to look after him. I read the gravestones.

CATRIN. 14 YEARS. CORRUPTED.

MORGAN. 12 YEARS. CORRUPTED.

DOUCHEBAG. 10 YEARS. CORRUPTED.

I read through all of them- but there was one more.

EUSINE. 28 YEARS. CORRUPTED.

I realised that this story would just repeat. But some children wouldn't be saved. Some would die young. Eusine was just lucky. Or not, I thought. I didn't want to know what would happen to Basile. I X'd off faster than I'd ever X'd a program off before, turned off the laptop and went downstairs. Somehow, I laughed nervously to myself, I didn't feel like eating toast after that. After explaining why my eyes were so red, I forced myself to forget the entire incident.

The reason I'm writing this now is that I recently bought a pre-owned Soulsilver version. I checked the previous owner's progress- they were at Cerulean Cape and about to catch suicune. Eusine was just behind them. I talked to him-

"Go ahead, Ethan. Catch Suicune. See if you can. Good luck..."

I knew that wasn't the original dialogue. I just knew it. But I remembered that hurt, angry smile plastered on his face, remembered that maniacal shrieking laugh and those broken eyes. Remembered the terror and the turmoil and the fury.

And I knew that this person, whoever they were, was not Eusine.

I do not know who they are, but if you are playing Soulsilver, that person is _not _Eusine.


End file.
